The pedestrian promenade that stretches for several blocks in Calgary’s downtown core provides ample opportunity to the urban sketcher who wants to sit at a local cafe enjoying a cappuccino, or grab a seat on one of the many benches and sketch any or all the numerous classic buildings that adorn the strip.

by Peter Norman

Welcome to the Calgary Urban Sketchers. Our hope is that this will become a gallery, an information sharing network, a billboard of events and a home for the urban sketchers of the Calgary area. We invite you to reach us through the Contact page and request access to this site. We will respond with everything you need to write your own posts and upload your images. Keep in mind that this is a new venture and that there is a steep learning curve involved. Beginning a new site/ blog on behalf of urban sketchers of Calgary is a daunting task for one who has never seen WordPress, much less used it to construct something legible (I’m initially resigned not to shoot for attractive). The learning curve is littered with landmines, just waiting for me to press an ill-advised key and blast away hours of work.

Nevertheless sketchers, I will WordPress on and soon we will have a useable, postable site for the dedicated sketchers of the Calgary area.

I’m sure that with a lot of time and effort, the work will become easier as the tasks become more familiar and committed to memory. In the meantime, stand by. The Calgary Urban Sketchers platform is almost ready to receive your fabulous artwork. Now, where did I see the instructions on setting up a gallery, hmm…

by Peter Norman

Here are just a couple of the sketches I did in and around Calgary over the past many months, most prior to the arrival of winter. The first is one of the oldest buildings in the downtown area, the original McDougall school. And the second is known by virtually everyone in Calgary and beyond. It is the iconic Calgary Tower, once the tallest building in the city, it is now (despite the perspective in this sketch) dwarfed by other structures, such as the Bow Building also shown here. To see larger versions, select the Image Gallery option in the sidebar. Feel free to offer your comments. We are very brave and might well benefit from what you offer by way of praise or critique.

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Urban Sketchers’ Mission

We are an all-volunteer nonprofit dedicated to fostering a global community of artists who practice on-location drawing.

Our mission is to raise the artistic, storytelling and educational value of on-location drawing, promoting its practice and connecting people around the world who draw on location where they live and travel.